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An investigation of the factors affecting the stability of a 4 storey square tower during an earthquake

William Ming (23) , Avani Jain (01), Ni Xu Gang Metta (18)

S2-07’13

School of Science and Technology, Singapore

Abstract

Many buildings have collapsed as a result of earthquakes around the world. Thus, this scientific research project studies how different parts of a building affect the earthquake resistance of a 4-storey square tower, namely the vertical bracings, horizontal beams, and dampers, and aims to reduce the destruction of buildings during an earthquake. The buildings were built in the research lab by the team using glue guns, timber strips and base boards. The timber type is “New Zealand Medium Density Fibre” from MERAWOOD Industries Pte Ltd. The shake table was built by the workshop instructor, Mr Mansor. All tests were conducted in ADMT Studio 2. The shake table was allowed to shake the buildings for 15s in each test. Results indicated that “X” bracings works the best during an earthquake, the number of beams has no effect and that dampers reduce the shake of the top two floors of the towers. For future buildings, “X” bracings should be used. Moreover, further studies can be done in other factors of earthquake-resistance such as the materials, shapes, length of the beams, the height of the tower, and other earthquake-proof systems like base isolation and spherical isolation systems.